The Ethics of Lying | Ep.11

We dig into what counts as a lie, how half-truths and omissions still mislead, and whether deception can ever be moral. From politics and pop optics to scripture and everyday choices, we make the practical case for clarity, courage, and letting your yes be yes.

• defining verbal lies, behavioural lies, and lies by omission
• half-truths, Gricean pragmatics, and context in meaning
• the “murderer at the door” and answering the real question
• biblical commands, midwives and Rahab, and moral hierarchy
• why self-deception blocks growth and breeds blame-shifting
• the Pinocchio principle, desensitisation, and trust erosion
• practical honesty reps in friendships, feedback, and promises
• letting your yes be yes and building reliable character

Christ is King, Jesus loves you and He's coming back soon.

Chapters

• 0:00 New Year, News, And Satire
• 7:52 Pop Politics And Celebrity Optics
• 15:50 Democracy, Voters, And Deception
• 19:36 Defining Lies And Half‑Truths
• 27:05 Pragmatics, Context, And Intent
• 33:20 Is Lying Ever Moral
• 40:11 Biblical Cases And Caveats
• 47:28 Self‑Deception And Its Costs
• 55:18 The Pinocchio Principle Of Trust

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:00

Guys, welcome to episode 11 of Ministry of Man podcast. I'm your host, Isaac Anthony Turner, and we're back again for the first podcast of this podcast of 2026. It's probably not the first podcast of 2026, but it's the first episode of this podcast of 2026. And uh I know we had one week off last week that everyone obviously noticed because this is subjectively a top five podcast in the world. So I know that uh everyone would have noticed that we didn't do an episode last week just because it was Christmas and New Year's, and it was time to just hang out with a family, and that's just what I wanted to do. And so I know everyone was craving it, and everyone was just flooding my messages.

SPEAKER_00: 0:48

They're going, Isaac, we can't live, we can't breathe without another episode, we need another episode.

SPEAKER_01: 0:57

It's so you're so cool and interesting and hot, and we can't go another week without it. So this is backed by popular demand. That's what I'm trying to say. We're backed by popular demand for 2026, and things are already happening. Like, we're what four days in, and like something's happening with Venezuela. I don't know, I think the US maybe bombed them or something. I'm not I'm not well versed in what's happening over there at the moment. I know a lot of people are complaining about that new Odyssey movie that the the the armor isn't historically accurate, um, which is the dumbest thing ever because yeah, yeah, it's Hollywood, it's not gonna like it's it looks way cooler. If you made it historically accurate, it's gonna look like trash and garbage. Uh you want it to look cool, so get over that for one. Anyway, all of that aside. Oh, and something something about apparently there's like all these like in Minnesota, there's all these childcare centres that are just getting millions and millions of dollars to like these Somalian childcare centres that have no children in them. And it's so funny because everyone on the left wing is so anti-immigration. They're they're anti-anti-immigration, and so because this looks bad on immigrants, they're like trying to defend fraud, and like this is how dumb people are, dude. It's like it's it shouldn't even be a political issue. It's like we've discovered fraud, there's a lot of fraud happening, and then a political party looks at it and goes, Because that makes our ideology look bad, we have to defend it tooth and nail. Which just in turn makes them look even worse because anyone with half a brain is like, why are you defending this? Like, this is your taxpayer money. Uh, they're stealing it. So, oh, this is why like I feel like I could never fully align with any particular political party. Like, I could never confidently be like, I support this party because like they go crazy. Most of the time they go crazy and they're so obsessed with just winning and beating the other side. It's got very little to do with what is best for everyone and what would be uh a political system that would work for what that would work the best. It's really not much to do with that, and more to do with we want to win and we want to have power. That seems to be the thing. I mean, can we please talk about the Republicans and like the conservative movement and what they're doing with Erica Kirk? Like, I don't know how I haven't brought this up before, but my gosh, dude. Like, why are you having a fireworks show and display? Oh, to be honest, I mean, it's already been spoken about to death by now. The memes are killing it. The memes are saying it all. I really don't need to say anything about it, but the it's the most cringe thing ever is watching the conservative movement try and like capitalise on the death of Charlie Kirk and like selling merch at Charlie Kirk's funeral is wild, dude. Like, what are we doing? I mean, you didn't, you just didn't, it just didn't need to happen. Like, you didn't need to capitalize on it. It was already a thing. Like, people when Charlie Kirk got assassinated, it was already a thing that people were like, that's really bad and wrong, and anyone that was supporting it was getting like you know, it's not doing them any favors. You didn't need to set up fireworks at it at the show, and then then they're getting Nicki Minaj to come in and like, oh dude, what are we doing, man? If you're a political party, a can in the conservative movement, let's say if you are Republican and you go, All right, we want to get people to come over to our side, okay, how should we do it? Let's just get anyone that just happens to agree and then just platform them if they have a big audience. Okay, here we think in like some sort of you know politician, maybe maybe a philosopher, maybe someone that has well thought out ideas and is established in the political space. No no no no think bigger. Think anaconda. Think twerking. Okay. Okay. Why? Well, Nicki Minaj wants to join. Let's sign her up. Sign her up, boys. That's gonna be our ringer. That's gonna bring in all that's gonna bring in so many votes into our party. Let's get Nicki Minaj. Oh my gosh, dude. Uh this is a clown world. We live in a clown world. Every day we drift further and further away from Eden. And then there was a clip of Charlie Kirk being like, I don't think Nicki Minaj is a good ambassador for young black women. And then I don't think she's a good role model a month later. Let's get her on stage, and then she calls JD Vance an assassin. I'm like, how can you? I've never seen a blunder or or someone misspeaking so disastrously bad than saying that JD Vance was an assassin to Erica Kirk. Like, of all words to use is mind-blowing. Oh my gosh. Even that's probably bad. I shouldn't have said that. But oh dude. This is just it, you don't need to watch reality TV anymore. You just need to watch the news. Anyway, dude, whatever. I'm talking about other things today, anyway, because because here's the thing all of that, it's all it's so deceptive. Like, they aren't getting Nicki Minaj on because they think she has really good ideas or that she's a a good role model for anyone to have and to look up to. They think that other people think she's cool or that she's popular, and they're like, oh, they're gonna come on our side if we get this popular person too, because if they'll just copy what they do no matter what they do, so they're not even leading with good ideas that they think would work. It's it's almost like a slap in the face of their own idea or like their own party, because they're like, Well, we can't win just by having good policies, we can't win just by having you know intelligence on our side. We have to get pop culture involved. And the the issue is that they're not even wrong. You kind of do need that. Like that there's a guy that's a looks maxer called Clavicular, and he goes, I wouldn't vote for JD Vance or someone. He goes, I would vote for someone else because of how they look. Like, I don't really care about their policies. So it's something like that. So it is kind of superficial, but that's why democracy isn't really a good idea anyway. Socrates didn't believe in a democracy because he didn't believe that every vote was equal. Like an educated vote and an uneducated vote shouldn't hold the same weight. If I am a person that has done a lot of research into economics, into politics, looking at all the different policies and looking at what has worked in other countries and what uh we've tried already that hasn't worked here, all these things. And then there's someone that goes, Well, I um I just support abortion. So I voted for them for that. And you're like, have you looked at any of the other policies? No, well, it doesn't matter though, because abortion. It's like, okay, well, that's the only, that's all they need to say then. That was literally Kamala Harris's only policy that was really spoken about at any conference that I heard anyway, that was seemed to go viral and that most people were posting about. It's like, you can try and convince thousands, hundreds of thousands of people based on one policy. It's like there's so many other things that are involved in a political party. But all of that to say, someone might not even vote for that. They might just be like, yeah, I just get a bad vibe from that purse. I'm gonna vote. I'm gonna vote for them. Or I don't know, I've just always voted them. I don't even really know why. Like, that shouldn't be the same vote as someone that is educated in it. It's so anyway. They're allowed to lie too, by the way. Politicians, there isn't any kind of legislation that politicians can that they have to abide by. Like if they go, we're gonna do XYZ, and then they get into office and then they don't do XYZ, they're not liable for that. Like they can just say whatever they want to get votes and then not do the thing that they got voted in for to do. Like Trump was like got voted in to release the Epstein files, didn't release them, you know, for a while at least, and tried to say to everyone there are none, and tried to gaslight everyone, and then eventually they got released. I mean, even though it was all pretty much just blacked out, and there was next to nothing in there that people could really see. There was a lot, but you know, nowhere near as much as people were hoping and expecting. But he could have he tried to just not do what he said he was going to do. Like, and he wouldn't have been held liable, wouldn't have been held accountable except for the people that voted him in. But most of the time they sweep that kind of thing under the rug because they would, you know, stop the media from talking about it usually. Oh so, which yeah, so that brings me to today and what I want to talk about. I want to talk about the ethics of lying, and I just want to go into what a lie is and if it is ever morally acceptable to lie, or if it is just always bad, and just sort of dig deep into it. So I suppose the there are a few definitions of what could be considered a lie. Obviously, the most uh obvious lie or the most known lie would just be not telling the truth. So let's say I did something and I didn't want people to know that I did it, and they ask, Did you do this thing? And I say, No, I didn't, even though that I did. That's a lie. I can also lie in the sense of saying, I did do something that I never did. I traveled to France when I was younger, and then I didn't actually do that. That's a lie. So that is more of a verbal lie. You can also look at behavioral lies in the sense that, like, I could say, I'm I'm going to do something, and then you don't follow through with the thing. So you go, yes, I will meet you there on Friday night, and then you don't turn up on Friday night. So you were, you said you were going to do something and then you didn't do it. So not just like saying you did something that you didn't do, but like not following through on something that you said you were going to do. Uh, there is also character lies, so or deception in who you are as a person. So there was this hilarious clip of this uh of Woody Allen talking to a young, maybe 17-year-old model, and he's trying to embarrass her. And he says, So, do you have any favorite philosophers or who's a philosopher that you like? And she just goes, Oh, geez, I don't know any philosophers. Yeah, no. And she goes, Who are your favorite philosophers? And throws it back on him. And he goes, Oh, well, I like all of the philosophers. And then she kind of realizes in that moment that he didn't say a name, and she goes, Oh, like who? And he goes, Oh, well, you know, just all the basic philosophers. And she's like, Yeah, what are their names? I don't know their names. And he's like, I just, you know, like like all of them. And like, so it was clear he was just trying to get away with lying about knowing philosophers. He didn't, he obviously didn't know any because he wasn't saying any. He's going, well, you know, all of the philosophers. So uh I thought that was hilarious for one. But two, it's another observation of projecting that you know something that you don't know that's uh deceptive as well. So half-truths can also be deceptive. If I let's say if you were to tell a little bit of a story, but you miss some key parts that is crucial to someone believing what you did. So let's say, for example, your partner goes, Where did you go last night? If you're in a relationship, and you go, Well, I went to my friend Sam's house, and then after that, I went to John's house, and then I went home. And then they, oh, okay. But in the middle of that, you went to Courtney's house. And so you didn't technically lie, you told a half truth. No, I did go to Sam's house and I did go to John's house, and then I came home straight after John's house. Like, so there's the lies by omission, basically. You are not painting the full picture in the attempt to deceive the person. Uh so one thing that really bothers me is when people think that they aren't lying because they didn't technically lie. So there's this idea of let's say someone says to you, they drew a painting and they ask, Do you like my painting? And let's say you really don't like the painting, but you don't want to upset them and you don't want to make an awkward, you don't want to make them feel bad, and you don't want to make an awkward atmosphere. And so you say to them, instead of lying, you don't want to lie either in this hypothetical situation, instead of saying, no, I don't like it, you want to avoid saying that. And so you say, Wow, those colors are so good. And that is a that must have taken you such a long time. And you you start like saying these other things, you might even say something like, um, wow, I love how much effort you put into the detail. And then they go, Oh, thank you so much. And that so they then walk away thinking that you said or that you meant that you you liked the painting. The question they asked was, do you like the painting? So they're asking, do you like the look of the painting? Not do you like how much effort I put into the painting, basically. You've gotten away out of it by not overtly saying that you like the painting, because you didn't technically say that. You say I like the effort that you put into the painting. But you were hoping in that moment they wouldn't pick up on that. You were hoping that they took your I like the effort you put into the painting as I like your painting, so as to not have to answer that question. But you've you've deceived them because now they're walking away thinking that you have said you like the painting. You know that they're walking away thinking that because that was what you were attempting to do. That was your ideal outcome was I'll say this, they'll think I meant this, and then we'll both be happy. To me, that's still a lie. So they could come back to you and go, say you tell, you know, person B, oh yeah, I didn't actually like, I didn't like their painting. Have you seen their painting? I didn't like it. That gets back to them and they confront you and they go, Hey, I thought you said you liked my painting. And then you go, Well, no, I never actually said I liked your painting. I said I like the effort you put into the painting. That's different. It's not my fault that you didn't realize that that's what I said. So, like that, that to me is just such a cheap cop out. That is a I would define that absolutely as a lie for this reason. You have communicated to that person that it is that uh that you liked it. The the act of what you said, like the whole idea of language and words is to communicate a thought for the other person to receive. Words are just the paint that you use to paint a picture of an idea. And so if you've painted, if you're using the paint and the words and they receive this idea, and you go, yep, yep, you let them walk away believing that, then you're you're submitting to them, uh, you're you're basically confirming to them that this is the right thing to believe, and you let them walk away like that, then you have misled that person and you have lied to that person. I define that as a lie. Deception is a lie, misleading is a lie, intentional misleading. Uh there there is no such thing as a white lie, it's just a lie. Lies don't have a color. It's either true or it's not true, it's either right or wrong, it's either true or false. So can we can we just as a society now, can we not can we just grow up? Can we grow up a little bit? Can we not play these like pretend games where we don't realize that like, well, technically I never said that. Like, yeah, you did though. You did though. You like you communicated this thing. Like, there isn't just like you You can't just like find loopholes in honesty. You're either honest or you're not honest. Like there isn't a secret little loophole where I can say, well, those aren't the words that I used. You might have heard that, but I never said that exactly. I was very careful with my words. Uh, yeah, you were careful with your words in the attempt to like not get make sure that it's not clear then. If it's not like full clarity. If you say to someone, your wife says to you, Do I look good in this dress? And you go, You're the most beautiful person that I know. And you're talking about their character, but they they wanted to know if they just looked beautiful in the particular dress they were wearing. And they they've taken that and go, Oh, thank you so much. Okay, I'll wear this dress. Like, how is that not a lie? And you go, Well, I never said that, yeah. You're getting it, you're getting the point now. So we can we can stop trying to pretend that that is a sufficient way to be honest. It's like I found a loophole in my honesty where I'm good, you know, I never said anything out of line, even though I intended them to believe this thing that I wasn't saying directly, you're indirectly saying that. So, like there is something called Gricean pragmatics, where you're you the way that you speak, there's a there's a there's room for interpretation based on context. So if I say to someone, hey, are you coming to my party on Friday night? And they go, Oh, I'm working, I receive that as no, I'm not coming to your party because I'm working. Now they didn't actually say, No, I'm working on Friday night. I filled in the gap based on the context. So that's that's the appropriate thing to do, by the way. If someone says, Oh, I'm working, and I go, Well, are you working on Friday night when my party is? Then they'll go, Yeah, yeah, that's why I said that. So you can't then use that as an excuse and be like, Well, I was actually, I actually said I was working, but I'm working in the morning, I'm not working at the night, but I didn't technically say that. Like, if hey, if they thought that that I was, like, you know, I didn't say it. It's lying, bro. So we need to just stop doing that. It's the uh pragmatically speaking, you're just you're just a bad purse if you think that that's an that's allowed, or like that's at least that's you're just wrong to think that that is not lying because it is lying, it's just super deceptive and misleading. So anyway. So now I want to figure out is it actually wrong to lie? Because in certain faiths or belief systems, certain ideologies, it's wrong to lie. By the law, it's wrong to lie under oath. You can actually be jailed for lying. So it's interesting, but the law isn't always representative of what is morally right and wrong. So it isn't against the law to cheat on your husband or wife, but you would say that that's morally wrong. And some things are against the law. Let's say speeding is against the law, but I don't think it's morally wrong to speed if you were going to save someone's life. If there was someone bleeding out in the backseat of your car, you're driving to a hospital. I wouldn't say that that is morally wrong. So, like the law isn't the arbiter. I don't believe in what is right or wrong. Uh so is it morally wrong or ethically wrong to lie? So the idea of lying being wrong has been around for thousands and thousands of years. In the Old Testament of the Bible, the fifth commandment in the Ten Commandments is you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. So it's uh a law against or a commandment against dishonesty. And the Bible spoke about dishonesty over, oh geez, it must be over a hundred times in different verses throughout. It mentions it quite a lot. A big one, 12, uh, Proverbs 12, 22. The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in people who are trustworthy. Detests lying lips. That is not a word used lightly. In Psalm 101, verse 7, he says, No one who practices deceit shall dwell in my house, no one who utters lies shall continue before my eyes. So the the Bible is really, really clear, and God is really, really clear on lying and deceit being wrong to do. There are countless times, and it never excuses it actually. It never excuses, it never has written down you could deceive, or you could lie, or you could tell a false falsehood in this circumstance. It never says that. There are examples of lies in the Bible which I'll go through, but uh just in terms of looking at whether it is right or wrong, in Christianity, it's never once said that you can lie in a particular place in the Bible. Never gives you any outline of lying being good. Now, it's obviously wrong in certain contexts, but some people would argue that it is good to lie depending on the situation. So let's unpack the idea. This is a very common one of let's just say someone comes into your someone comes to your house, they're an axe murderer, and your spouse is in another room, and you know that this person is looking for your spouse to kill them. Maybe they have a gun, who, whatever it is. You that's just the scenario. That's what they want to know. And they ask you, is that person in your house right now? And they are in your house. And if you say yes, that they they're gonna proceed to go in to kill them. Is it morally good to say yes, they are in this house? Or is the morally good thing to never lie ever under any circumstances and say, uh, well, yeah. Do you say yes, they're in here because you never lie? Or you say, no, they're not here because I know you know I want them to live, and so I'm not gonna tell you the truth, in order to preserve their life. So there's two schools of thought that would come up in this. Well, there's maybe three schools of thought. Some people might say, tell the truth no matter what, at all costs. Never uh never tell a falsehood. So you could just stand on that, and then one the the example could be that they go in and they kill the person, but you've remained honest and truthful, and that that might be the good thing, perhaps. Other people might say you have a greater obligation to preserve life than you do to tell the truth. So there's some examples in the Bible, let's say, of the Hebrew midwives lying to the Egyptians who wanted to kill the firstborn sons of all the all the Hebrew men or the Hebrew babies. And so what they would do is that they would go to the midwives, and and then the midwives would say, Oh, the Hebrew women, they actually give birth much faster. Uh they said, So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, Why have you done this and let the Mao children live? And they said, Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and they give birth before the midwife comes to them. And it said, because they feared God, they did this. And then they were they were recognized as uh as being good in the eyes of God. It said, God dealt with them, with the midwives well. He dealt well with the midwives because of what they'd done. So it didn't seem like they were punished for the lying, but they were rewarded from their hierarchy of virtues being in good standing, in good order. So that's one idea, let's say. The other idea is this, and this is what I'm more fond of. This is what I think about this scenario. That person talking about communication, and what is someone communicating? When someone comes knocking on your door, and you know that they're going to, if like if you say yes to their question of is this person in there, knowing that if you say yes, they're going to kill them, what are they really asking? They're asking, can I come in to kill this person? That's the real question here. This isn't just a yes or no, hey, just wondering, are they in there or not? It's like, no, I like what's happening right now, you've come to my door and you're asking me, can I come in to kill this person? Because the information that I want to know is a means to get to the the end, the end which is killing the person. So to me, when I say no, they're not in here, what I'm actually communicating is no, you cannot come in to kill them. Like, what games are we playing where we think that that's a genuine question? Where it's like they knock on the door, they're looking to kill the person that's in your house, and they just say, Are they inside? And like that isn't a genuine question. That's a dishonest question. And so the real question, because you you should be able to see in context what's happening. I I will only answer your real question. I'm not going to answer your deceitful question. And so when I would look at that, I would say, I see your deceitful question. I also see your real question, and that's the one I'm going to answer. No, they're not here. And I'll, I'll that to me, that is perfectly fine in telling the truth. Because, again, language, all that is, is just the makeup of an idea. And so if I can see the idea, then I don't really care what language you use. I see your idea. Communication is far beyond just the particular words that you use. When you're when you're communicating, only about 7% of the actual words you use are being read. There's body language, there is tone, there's facial expressions, there's attitude, there's inflection in the word. All of these things change completely the conversation. Have you ever heard that thing where someone goes, uh, I never said she stole my money? If you put a different inflection on every syllable, it changes the whole thing completely. So you can go, I never said she stole my money, or you can say, I never said she stole my money, or I never said she stole my money, I never said she she stole my money, I never said she stole my money. You're getting the point. So you can go on down the line and finish it off. I'm not doing it all. But that's the thing is like there's so many different ways that you can say something. It doesn't, it's the same words in that sentence. All of them mean a different thing. So you can miss me with this whole, oh, well, I never said that and these deceitful questions. No, no, no, no, no. Can we just look at the real idea for a moment? I think we're all capable of doing that now. I think a lot of a lot of people are more capable of doing that, and like not falling for the well, I never said that. It's like, yeah, you did, dude. Come on now. It's like the whole thing of uh guys when they talk to their girl and the girl's like, I'm fine. And then she's clearly not fine, and they go, Well, she said she was fine, so what am I looking at? It's like, yeah, dude. No, she didn't though. Like, how much more communication? It's just called non-verbal communication. That's all that is. Yep, she said she was fine, but obviously she isn't because of her attitude and the way the way that her arms are crossed and her face is frowning. She goes, I'm fine. Yeah, okay. Oh, well, they said they're fine. What am I meant to do? I'm not a mind reader. Like, okay, come on now. Like, just grow up, dude. Like, we're not children. Like, this is like it's childish stuff to pretend that you don't realize. It's like it's a stupid game, and no one wins in that game. So just enough. Enough with it. So, yeah. Anyway, so they're the different ideas, I suppose, of of that scenario and whether or not it is right or wrong to lie. So all of those scenarios, I think I I kind of agree with both the hierarchy of values, but also in that specific, like I agree more looking at the dressing of what's happening, or like looking at the trying to find what is the legitimate question they're asking, because language can be so deceitful. And so I prefer to look at, I think it is wrong to deceive. Well, my my beliefs are based in Christianity. I I suppose the only other things that I wanted to just to finish off this last little bit, because there are more lies that happen in the Bible. So obviously the Hebrew midwives lied. Rahab is another character in the Bible that lies and is called righteous. Now it doesn't say they're righteous for lying, but it's it's kind of an implication because the big thing that they did was lie in order to save some of the Israelites. So, and then multiple times in the in the New Testament, so in the Old Testament she lies. In the New Testament, they're like, that girl was righteous. So it doesn't it doesn't condemn any of the lies, but that was kind of her defining moment, was the big lie that she did to save people. God also puts a lying spirit in the mouth of someone to deceive a king of Israel as well. So God uses a spirit of lying in order to get something done. So there's an argument to be made that in the Bible at certain times lying is permissible. It's never prescribed, but you could argue or make a case that it's permissible depending on the circumstances, but you have to be so, so careful of like what that is. And we don't have an outline of what that actually is as well, because some people might say, Oh, well, I only lied because I thought they would get upset. And then you can kind of decide what you think might make them upset. So you can say, Well, no, I only lied because uh, you know, I thought that I would get their feelings hurt if I said this. And so you're you're kind of becoming the arbiter for what they can and can't handle in that moment. You don't know for sure whether they'd get upset. Um, or you could be convincing yourself of that, but really you're just trying to avoid the discomfort of lying. Like there is there's a lot of reasons why someone could lie, and if you start going down the path of it's best for them that I lie to them, that's a really slippery slope. There's you that that can be classed as maybe people pleasing. It could just be some sort of dishonest gain from it. You could just be like, maybe you're you're just not wanting to hurt someone and deal with that, where that could in turn end up hurting them more because them not knowing the truth of something means that they don't know that it's a problem and they don't fix that problem. There's a lot of different reasons someone could lie. I mean, people lie for self-gain all the time. People lie because they want to be liked or they don't want to be disliked or they want to fit in or they want to avoid embarrassment. They might even lie just to hurt someone. They might say, Yeah, I did this thing that they didn't do, but they knew that this person would be upset if they thought that that was true. So it's a lot of different reasons. But keep in mind, in all of these scenarios and situations, to say, like, there's a verse in the Bible that says, it is impossible for God to lie. It's impossible for God to lie. So in all of these situations, you have to put God or let's say putting Jesus in the same circumstance, what would he do there? Would he lie? So I can't think of a scenario in which I would think Jesus would deceive or lie in any capacity. Obviously, I believe that he is God, become flesh, and so I don't think that he would ever lie because it's impossible for God to lie. So that's something that's just like a little caveat to keep in mind as well, on like all these situations of these meta-ethical situations. So you can decide for yourself whether or not you think it's ever appropriate to lie. Or if you think if you think that Jesus is the best model of a human that uh that we should follow after, try and find a situation that you think he would maybe lie, or yeah. And let me know if you find one. So but here's the thing I'm gonna go through the dangers of lying because this is a um it's important to go through this. First of all, a lot of the time people will lie to themselves about a lot of things. So the the biggest danger of lying to yourself, let me just say this first. When I say lying to yourself, I actually mean you you can't actually lie to yourself successfully. You can act as if the lie you're telling yourself is true, but you will never be able to successfully lie to yourself. It's like the idea of that is saying, yeah, I can't remember what the color blue looks like. And it's like, what, but you do though. You can pretend and you can act as if you don't, but you you're never going to be able to successfully convince yourself of a lie, because in order for you to do that, you have to know the truth to begin with. So you're net you can never effectively lie to yourself. People try to do it all the time and act as if that lie were true, but they they they'll never fully know. And this is where the biggest issue is, is because you know that it's not true, your the the damage that that does, there's some studies would suggest that it might either create more white matter in the brain, or people that lie more often just have more white matter in the brain. So they don't know if it's actually creating it, but it's not, but there is some significant difference in a in a pathological liar's brain that has to do with having more white matter in the brain, which is not a good thing, I don't think. So this is what people do when they might lie to themselves, and this is some of the negative consequences that might happen from it. So let's say you're you create a false reality that you live in. Imagine a scenario where you think that no matter what, everything is going to work in your favor. Like no matter what, no matter how you behave. You're always going to be loved and accepted perfectly by absolutely everyone. Making that reality, I don't even need to explain how silly that is, but if you make that false reality, you're going to find out very quickly how that is just not true. That you won't, that you can't just behave however you want and feel and just be accepted and loved by everyone. You're going to get slapped in the face by the hard rod of reality. So let's imagine maybe another scenario. You imagine that you don't need to practice for the job interview, or you don't need to study for the test. And then you're thinking, no, I'm I'm well equipped. I'm fine to do this. You're creating this narrative that you're just kind of making up. You're lying to yourself to think that you don't need to do these things. And then you fail the test and you don't get the job. And so because you wanted to live in this world that was easier for you, where you didn't have to do work, you wanted your reality to be this reality where, yeah, you don't need to try hard. I get what I want anyway. You end up suffering the consequences. Then if you had just been raw honest with yourself and be like, look, I don't know. So what I'm going to do is put in the work and then hope that the outcome is the favorable outcome that I want. Now, let's imagine you lie to yourself to absolve yourself of any responsibility in a given situation. Willful blindness, maybe you could call it. So let's say you're in a situation, something wrong, bad happens, that you did something wrong, but you don't want to believe that you did anything wrong. So you you make up this lie that the world is against you, or that this other it must have been this other thing, or you just try and justify the actions in your own mind, which then effectively prevents you from learning and growing from that situation. So there's this example that I know of where there was this girl who was uh was talking to one of her friends. Let's call them person. So like the person I knew is person A talking to person B. I'm in a car, so I can't hear them. Person A comes over, jumps in the car, and the first thing they say is, I wasn't saying anything wrong about person C. And I was like, uh what? And then they're like, Well, I never I wasn't like being mean to person C. And I was like, okay, so you've just come from talking, person A has just come from talking from person B. First thing you said is I wasn't talking mean about person C. What were you guys talking about? I ask. And they go, Oh, well, person B was just saying some things that were like, you know, I don't think they like person C, but I wasn't saying anything that was like mean about or anything. I'm like, look, I didn't hear the conversation. But what it looks like to me that's happening is that you're trying to justify and convince yourself that you weren't just gossiping about person C. It looks like person A and person B were gossiping. Person A is friends with person C, and they were then trying to convince themselves, well, I didn't actually say anything wrong. It clearly, it looked like you really did, though. Like based on your response and your reaction, the first thing, like I didn't hear any of the conversation, and you were just telling me all of these things that you didn't do. So I believe that person A was saying some mean things about their friend person C, and felt bad about it. And rather than thinking, hmm, I shouldn't have behaved that way or said those things, maybe I'll change my behaviors if that ever happens again. They just absolved themselves of any kind of responsibility or accountability from what they said. And so they're more, they're probably going to do the same thing in another time because they they washed their hands of any kind of accountability. So in that moment, they were changing the reality that they had in their head. And that is a form of lying to yourself. This is very similar to what some uh I think I believe it's Soren Kierkegaard speaks about this. I know Jordan Peterson writes about it in one of his books. Is that there's the it's the difference between an authentic person and an inauthentic person, right? So an authentic person, the situation might go something like this. They might say, you might look at them and go, okay, did you get what you want? Let's say no. The response would be, okay, then you need to change or readjust or look at the things again, and you know, there'll be something within you that you need to change because you didn't get the result you wanted. Right. Pretty reasonable. The the alternative is the inauthentic person. And it might look a little bit like this. Did you get what you want? No. It's their fault. If it wasn't for them, then then this would have been fine. The world is unfair. It's external blame rather than taking responsibility for something. So there's that. Now, one of the other biggest issues is that the more you lie, the easier it is for you to lie in the future. You actually get desensitized to lying over time, and you're more likely to feel one, less guilt about the lie. So if you've lied a little like a a little bit, you you know, you might feel a little bit of guilt. And if you lie a little bit again, you know, that that guilt starts to get less and less the more you lie, which means that you then become capable of lying about bigger things. So not only do you feel less guilty about lying, which would mean that you would be more okay with lying more often, you also become more okay with telling larger scale lies, which is very, very dangerous. You lose the ability to tell the truth in a lot of cases. There's this Norm McDonald joke where he would say something along the lines of, uh, what am I lying about now? And like, so it'd be like, Oh, have you gone and seen this movie? Yeah, I have seen this movie. And you're like thinking in your head, wait, why did I just say that? Like, I haven't seen that movie. And it's like, it almost becomes just the natural response. You lie so often that that is the norm for you to do. That is the natural, easy thing to do. It just sort of rolls off the tongue of like, yeah, and you don't even realize, what am I lying about now? Like, you know, that's how much it can affect you and it can kind of snowball out of control with lies. And the thing that people don't realize, this is this is the thing that gets me the most, is that people think that they can get away with lying. Like Jordan Peterson said in his, let's say, 20 years of clinical practice, he never saw anyone get away with a lie ever in his whole career, even once. And he meant in the sense of it manifested in other ways down the line, because you can't you can't bend the fabric of reality and expect it not to snap back into place. But more importantly, the this is the idea of the Pinocchio lying story, where the the fairy says to Pinocchio as he's lying, when his nose starts to grow further and further and further, it becomes more and more noticeable. It becomes clearer when someone's not telling the truth. Other people can see, and you forget, they often forget a lot of people that are pathological, pathological lies, they forget a lot of the lies that they've told. They can't keep up with them because it isn't the truth. I don't need to try and remember the story of like what is true and what isn't true. I can only remember the truth. And then anything else, I'm making up. So it's not really a memory. So when you're drawing from memory, you can be rest assured in that. You can be really safe. Like, I'm I know that if I'm just drawing from my memory, I'm sweet. I don't need to keep track of what I've said because the memory doesn't change, even though there's memories actually can change, but that's another podcast for another day. Uh, but for the most part, memories don't typically change. I remember there was a friend of mine, an old friend, who I don't know why. You're just gonna have to make well, let's just make up reasons as to why they told this particular lie. But they said they said to me that they were on a salary. That at their job, they were paid a salary. And I was like, okay, cool. Like, I'm on an hourly wage. Well, I was at the time. And yeah, I was like, okay, didn't really think anything of it. And then a couple months went by and they said, Oh, yeah, I just write in the same hours on my timesheet every week and just pretend I'm on a salary. And I was like, Oh, I thought you were actually on a salary, and they're like, nah, like I just I just said that because like I just pretend that I am, and if I work more or less hours, I just put in my same hours every week. And I was like, okay, cool. Like, weird of you to say that you're on a salary before, but sure. A couple months go by, and he says he had a meeting with his bosses and he negotiated a pay rise on his salary. And uh, I was like, Oh, I thought you were on uh hourly wage, and he goes, Oh no, for the negotiations, they put me on a salary, and I was like, Oh, okay, cool. Alright. Couple months later, he says again, yeah, I just write my hours in my timesheet as if I'm on a salary. And I'm just thinking, what the hell is wrong with this kid, man? Like, what the hell is wrong with this guy? Why are you telling me that you're on a salary when you're not? Why are you lying about this stupid thing? I don't care. If you're on a salary, a salary on an hourly wage, such a dumb lie. And like, oh dude, like these stupid things. Like, it's Pinocchio's nose growing further and further. Do you know what that does? Do you know what that did to that for me in the towards that person? I'm like, oh, okay, I don't trust you now. Okay. So cool idea, bro. Like telling someone that you're on a such a dumb little insignificant thing I'm on a salary. Now I don't trust you as a person. So what's the payoff? Like ultimately, what's the payoff? People are gonna think slightly different, people are gonna think a different thing. Okay. The alternative if they don't, if if the truth comes out, which it usually does, is now that they don't want to listen to anything you say because they think you talk garbage. Like, that's the that's the reward you get for the lying. Like, these are some of the talking about the dangers of lying, that's one of the worst ones. Because whenever I've caught people out on stuff like that, and there's been a heap of people that I've that that's things have happened where I've just been like, that was such an insignificant lie that I do not care about, but now I know a bit about your character, and you are a liar, and now I don't want to hang around you because I don't believe a lot of the things you say. So it's just it's baffling to me why people don't want to like tighten up the screws of of their honesty, it's definitely worth investing in for one. And a lot of the time when someone is trying to lie to like save, to like not hurt someone, it actually does them more harm in the long run, anyway. Like, you're better off just ripping the band-aid off of telling a hard truth. Because if someone is doing something that is noticeably bad for them, that you feel like you have to bring it up, like, even if it's just a small thing, like, do I look good in this dress? And you say, first of all, no, you don't. I'm I'm saying that because I want you to look your best, and I think there's a better option. Like, that is the better option to do is to say, no, I don't think you do look good in that dress. I think try another one on, rather than saying, yeah, you look amazing, and then they go out, and then all the other people that they see are seeing them looking bad in this particular dress. It's just so much better off for everyone if you just tell the truth in those scenarios, rather than like trying to avoid any backfire, or like avoid any, I don't know, upsetting someone or whatever. So, yeah. And then also, if it's like a character thing, it was like, like, oh, do you think I did the wrong thing there? Do you think I said the wrong thing? No, no, that was fine, it was completely valid. And it was like, dude, you definitely instigated that thing. Why would like that is not going to help them grow as a person? James Isaac Vance says in his book, Royal Manhood, he says, What matters it whether a man agree with your opinion? It is enough for him to be honest in his better an honest foe than a dishonest friend. Like, yeah. Honestly, like, better an honest foe than a dishonest friend. Like, what is a yeah, what is it good to have a a dishonest friend, man? Sucks. So this is this this brings me to the importance of telling the truth and why honesty is such a big value. It is, it is literally one of the number one things people look for in a friend. People don't care about your status, your wealth, your education, what you do for a job. They don't care about any of that if you're dishonest. Like they're not gonna want to be around you. Like when I'm looking for a friend, like that is one of the number one things. Is this person trustworthy? Or are they a liar? It's it's not something you can buy, it's not something you can earn really, it's not something you can receive as a gift. You either have it or you don't. You can practice it. You can practice being honest. And actually, that is a good thing to do, is to practice being honest because in the same way that when you lie, you become desensitized to lying. When you, the more you're honest, the more, the easier it is for you to be honest in the future as well. So if you can be honest in the little things, James Isaac Vance talks about common honesty. He has a chapter in his book that says common honesty, and it's the most important thing. You you have to be honest with the little things in order to be honest with the big things. It's building up your the muscle of honesty. So that's one thing that people look for it more than anything else. But also, people trust you more. If you're the person that says, no, you don't look good in that dress, or no, I don't think you should do that. I think you were you were in the wrong in that situation, they're more likely to come to you for honest feedback. Because they're like, you aren't just trying to tickle my ears and you aren't just trying to flatter me and be favorable towards me. I think those are the people that I want to have around me the most, is the people like for right or wrong, whether I agree with them or not, it kind of doesn't matter if I know that I'm getting their authentic beliefs and their authentic opinion. I can choose then whether I agree with it or not. I can choose then whether I'm upset by it or not. But at least I know that I can trust that what they're saying isn't trying to manipulate me or deceive me in any way. Even if it's to just make the deception is to make me like them more. I know that I don't want to be around those people either. Like that's kind of like I feel like that's disingenuous too. And it's even though their intention might be good and it's just like, oh, they're just trying to be liked because they might like you, it's still hard to connect with those people. So you really just you just have to just try so hard to be honest, I think. It's just such a crucial value. And you can like to figure out whether or not it is good or bad, if you're still undecided, take it, take action on it yourself and see how it goes for you. So live in truth and then live in deceit, try them both on, face the consequences of both, and then make your own decision and see what happens. Also, there is a difference as well. I'll just put a note in here. There is a difference between lying and just being wrong about something as well. You can say something that isn't true and it not be a lie as well. So, in terms of the virtue of honesty and lying, it's important to make sure that you're speaking from a place of honesty and that you genuinely believe it to be true. That doesn't mean that it's going to be right or correct. So there's a there's a difference between knowing the truth and saying a falsehood, then believing a wrong truth and sharing that. So that's also a distinguishing factor that people should hopefully all know. But ultimately, it's it's to do with uh honesty is to do with the integrity of the person. So the the last thing I'll kind of say is when the Bible talks about truth, Jesus says something really interesting. He says He says not to take an oath. He says, when in your dealings, don't like swear an oath. And he says, uh, but let your yes be your yes and your no be your no. So what he's saying in that, so if you're if you are to be a Christian, you can't even, you shouldn't be able to conceive of the idea of potentially being dishonest in any regard. So let's say if you only tell the truth by swearing an oath, that means you would be dishonest given the opportunity to. So if you weren't under oath, let's say, that you might be dishonest in that scenario. So he's saying don't take oaths. Like your yes, you just saying yes to something, there shouldn't be even the potential concept of you telling a lie as a Christian person, as someone that is following Christ. Your yes is your yes, your no is your no. You have to be honest and integral in everything that you do. Like I said this, so I'm sticking to it. That should be the Christian walk. A man says to a slave boy as the story goes, Boy, if I buy you, will you be honest? The boy says, Sir, I'll be honest whether you buy me or not. That is true honesty, is without bribe, without there being another alternative scenario in which I might tell the truth. I will always say my yes is my yes, my no is my no. That is the walk of the Christ follower as they should behave. And if they don't, they should repent and attempt to walk that way. It's especially important for Christians because if if religion is to make people honest, it must first be honest itself. You can't have a a group of dishonest individuals convinced. Convincing other people that they need to be honest. So that's what I have to say about that. And you know what else? You know what else? You know what Jesus says? He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. And when he's what he means is when he says that he is the way, the truth, and the life, that's the direction. That's the aim that you want to go. Like the way that Christ lived and how he modeled his life and his way of work doing things is the way to go. It is the truth that is the it is the right way and it is life because Christ says, I came to give life and life in abundance. And what is that life? It's not your fleshly desires, it's not your hopes and dreams. Life is eternal life, is the living water. It is it is a way of living now that is beyond the primitive means of our carnal nature. It is ascended beyond the carnal nature. So, anyway, happy new year, happy 2026. Remember these three things. Christ is King, Jesus loves you, and he's coming back soon. And thanks for listening once again. Had a real fun time. So I'll see you next time. Peace.